Reviews

Donna Ulisse is a superb, celebrated and oft-covered singer-songwriter whose ears and heart are finely attuned to the bluegrass mainstream.  On her twelfth album her magic touch with lyrics and melody continues to impress.  Ulisse wrote or cowrote eight of these 11 songs, and their power lies in the way she cuts straight to the…

For his newest release, John Lowell—the 2021 Winner of the Hazel Dickens Songwriting Contest—brings us a collection of songs with a Western theme.  Lowell—a longtime Montana resident—is a veteran performer, guitar player, and songwriter with over thirty-five years of experience.  He will be best known to bluegrass fans for his work with the bands Loose…

Chicgoland’s Eric Lambert has distinguished himself over his career as one of the top flatpickers in the Midwest. A devotee of Clarence White and Tony Rice, Lambert creates bold, clear-voiced guitar solos that capture the spirit of his heroes without parroting them. On his new CD, Beating The Odds, Lambert recruited some of the area’s…

Don’t think that it is hype or marketing hyperbole to read that Sideline’s latest album, Ups, Downs and No Name Towns is their best project to date.  For a group that literally started as a part time gig for a group of outstanding pickers—hence the name, Sideline—it is a big statement to claim “best.” After…

We live in a golden era for flat picks, with custom and boutique pick makers producing beautifully fashioned plectrums in a truly bewildering range of space age materials, shapes, and bevels. Into that market comes C.F. Martin with its newly introduced Luxe Contour Pick. Using a shape similar to the Blue Chip TP-1R, it features…

A concept album of 16 songs focusing on stories and characters from the Cumberland Gap area of Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia takes the listener back in time. Twenty-seven artists whose familes are originally from the region are featured, with lead vocals from Teddy Cosby, Bryan Turner, Phillip Powers, James Clark, Joseph Wilson, Randall Massengill, Jason…